Letter of recomendation request

[iceet]

I wanted to ask one of my former professors for a letter of recommendation and was thinking of sending her an e-mail. How good is this e-mail for the purpose:

Dear Dr. S*,

My name is Al M* and I am currently a junior Physiology and Neurobiology major. I was in your Spring ’05 BSCI105 class and your Fall ’05 BSCI222 class and received an A in both.

The reason I am writing to you is because I am currently beginning the medical school admissions process and have a few questions. I would also like to request a letter of recommendation from you. I would love to speak to you during your office hours, please let me know when you’re available. I look forward to meeting with you soon and thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Al M-

P.S. Attached is my resume and a copy of my current transcript.



Is this good enough? I'm worried the professor wont respond. Thanks in advance.

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[sunflwr85]

Looks good to me! That's very similar to the emails I sent, and I got responses (and eventually letters) from all but one of the profs. (but he's a jerk anyway.) Good luck!

 

[iceet]

thanks. anymore suggestions?

 

[somemaybedoc]

Looks fine, but I always went in person since I knew my profs pretty well. Is your school huge? My impression of office hours is that they are pretty much open door. Even if I wanted an appointment I would probably have just asked for it without asking for the letter in the email and bring my resume along w/out sending it.

 

[iceet]

Yeah my school is pretty big but office hours are open. also, I know this professor but not extremely well. Do you still think I should go meet her in person?

 

[somemaybedoc]

Yeah my school is pretty big but office hours are open. also, I know this professor but not extremely well. Do you still think I should go meet her in person?

Yes, email is very imprecise for conveying an affable attitude.

 

[kdburton]

Yeah my school is pretty big but office hours are open. also, I know this professor but not extremely well. Do you still think I should go meet her in person?

If I were the professor I would probably feel more comfortable receiving an e-mail up front requesting to set up an appointment to specifically discuss your LOR. You dont want to go into office hours for one of his/her classes and possibly be taking up the time of students who are there to ask questions about the classes. Similarly you don't want to go into busy office hours and try to make an impression on the prof while competing for his/her attention with other people. Start off with an e-mail like you've already posted and hopefully you can get an appointment. Good luck!